Ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar wave as they are transported by a wooden boat to a temporary shelter in Krueng Raya in Aceh Besar, in this file picture taken April 8, 2013.CREDIT: REUTERS/JUNAIDI HANAFIAH/FILES

One afternoon in October, in the watery no-man’s land between Thailand and Myanmar, Muhammad Ismail vanished.

Thai immigration officials said he was being deported toMyanmar. In fact, they sold Ismail, 23, and hundreds of other Rohingya Muslims to human traffickers, who then spirited them into brutal jungle camps.

As thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar to escape religious persecution, a Reuters investigation in three countries has uncovered a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand’s immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.

The Rohingya are then transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in a series of camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay thousands of dollars to release them. Reporters located three such camps – two based on the testimony of Rohingya held there, and a third by trekking to the site, heavily guarded, near a village called Baan Klong Tor.

Thousands of Rohingya have passed through this tropical gulag. An untold number have died there. Some have been murdered by camp guards or have perished from dehydration or disease, survivors said in interviews.

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Secretary General to the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security Minister Anusorn Iamsa-ard has presented a human trafficking prevention policy to the government and private sectors in the South to improve the standards of living for local residents.

During the meeting on human trafficking prevention in Nakorn Srithammarat, Mr. Anusorn said that the government has made human trafficking a national concern, as the country is still on a human trafficking watch list.

He has coordinated with both the public and private sectors in dealing with such a problem. Measures have been developed to help victims of human trafficking and prevent anyone from becoming one, Mr. Anusorn said.

The victims will be eligible to enter a welfare scheme as a way of restoring their well-being and mental health. Awareness of such a crime will also be promoted among residents. Other relevant issues to be tackled by the Ministry’s mission include the prevention of teen pregnancy, child labor, as well as abuse of women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities.

Photo: International FederationAgencies feared children would be at greater risk of trafficking in the wake of Cyclone Nargis

When Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in May, leaving close to 140,000 people dead or missing, aid workers feared an increase in child trafficking from the region.

Burmese children have long been trafficked into Bangkok and other urban areas of Thailand where they are forced to sell flowers, beg or work in domestic service, according to World Vision. Others work in agriculture, fishing, construction and the sex industry, the NGO said.

Today they make up the largest proportion of foreign child labour, Thailand’s immigration detention centres report.

Thailand is facing fresh allegations of using slave labour in its fishing industry with the launch of a new investigation into the sale, abuse and exploitation of migrant workers on Thai fishing ships.

The men had been subjected to bonded labour, forced detention, and abuse and beatings by senior crew while working on ships operating in Thai waters, according to EJF.

Two of the men reported seeing fellow migrant workers tortured and executed for trying to escape, and witnessing the murder of at least five other men. Another manreported multiple murders and bodies being thrown out to sea with the crew forced to watch.

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“The rape of Narunisa demonstrates the vulnerability of Rohingya women to human traffickers – even when they are living in government-run shelters where they should be protected,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “The government needs to swiftly and impartially investigate the rape case, and determine why traffickers were able to get access to Rohingya women in this shelter, and prosecute all those who aided the crime.”

According to Narunisa, human traffickers – both Rohingya and Thai – were able to gain access to the shelter in Phang Nga province soon after a group of about 70 Rohingya women and children arrived there in January. Korlimula, who was identified to Human Rights Watch as working for a Rohingya-Thai human trafficking gang, told Narunisa that he would reunite her with her husband in Malaysia for a fee of 50,000 baht (approximately US$1600).

On May 27, Korlimula helped Narunisa and her two children to escape from the shelter and took her to meet with other associates. Narunisa and her children were put on a pickup truck driven by a man, whom she later learned is a police officer at Khao Lak police station in Phang Nga province. The three of them were taken to six hideouts in the province, and in each case locked up against their will. At the final hideout on Koh Yipoon Island in Phang Nga province’s Kuraburi district, Korlimula repeatedly assaulted and raped Narunisa at knifepoint over the course of three days, from June 9 to 11. After that, Narunisa and her children were dumped on the street in Kuraburi district and the three of them made their way back to the shelter on June 18. Narunisa reported the rape case at Kuraburi district police station on June 18, and then filed a formal complaint against Korlimula on June 21.

A new report by the London-based Environmental Justice Foundation estimates 27 million people are victims of human trafficking around the world. Many are sold into sex slavery. But in Thailand, men are being trafficked to work in the fishing industry. They are forced to labour for up to 20 hours a day with little or no pay. The UN has found that nearly 60 percent have witnessed the murder of a fellow worker. Al Jazeera’s Wayne Hay reports from Thailand.

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Teth Teth Win was arrested on May 30 by a DSI team of investigators, led by Pol Major Jatuporn Arunroektawin, head of DSI Human Trafficking Suppression Division 2.

According to investigators, Teth Teth Win and her daughter Win Tanda Aong had illegally smuggled at least 15 people from Myanmar and forced them to work at a corn factory located in Tha Ma Kha district of Kanchanaburi province.

Jatuporn said his team had arrested Teth Teth Win and rescued six women from Myanmar who had been detained and tortured while they were staying at a camp for workers located near the factory. They had never received any wages despite being forced to pay between Bt15,000 and Bt20,000 to Teth Teth Win and her daughter for entering Thailand through Mae Sot and travelling to Kanchanaburi.

Thailand is doing little to prevent the human trafficking of workers coming from other countries, and many of these indentured servants are finding their way to the fishing industry, where they are forced to work on vessels engaged in illegal, or pirate, fishing, a new report says.

The trafficked workers are subject to long hours, little or no pay and physical and mental abuse up to and including murder, with 59% of Thai fishing workers who were surveyed by the United Nations in 2009 saying they had seen a fellow worker murdered, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation report, “Sold to the Sea–Human Trafficking in Thailand’s Fishing Industry”, released Wednesday.

Because of Thailand’s tight labor market, many people coming to the country for work wind up in fisheries, where they are subject to horrific working conditions, the report said. Many of these workers end up on illegal fishing vessels, and a recent report from the environmental group Oceana found up to 20% of the world’s fish are caught illegally.

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Police are seeking warrants to arrest two Thai women and eight South Korean men after a 17-year-old girl was rescued from a brothel in Seoul on Saturday.

Phiangjai Phanplado, 43, the aunt of the victim who is accused of luring her niece into selling sex in South Korea early last month, is among those for whom police have sought warrants.

Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTD) chief Pol Maj Gen Chawalit Sawaengphuet said two suspects _ another Thai woman and a Korean man _ were captured on an Immigration Bureau camera at the airport as they took the girl on board a plane to Seoul.

The other seven suspects were found to have been involved with the same flesh trade gang.